Just found an old audio clip that I sampled from a box of cassettes a few years ago. Pulled from a tape dated 1971, it was recorded at our apartment in Torrance. My brother Jed is a newborn; I’m two years old.
I’m the first grandchild of my maternal grandparents, Gil and Margaret. In this 1971 clip, they’re visiting us on their way from Hawaii to pick up their $7000 Jaguar in Reno. Gil has just gotten on the floor to serve as a horse; I’ve climbed up. He has me by the wrists while my old man sits by, amused. Gran’s in the other room. This is before we were calling her Granny by request.
Grandpa Gil and Granny are still going strong today. Grandpa just turned 97 in May; Gran — a Facebook user! — will be following suit in August.
Back in July 2005, when I found these tapes and digitized this particular clip, I sent Gran the link and an email. Here’s her response, received just 42 minutes later:
07/05/05
Hi there, Jace, you precious Grandson – Numer ONE
I am going to run this by Grandpa after he’s finished playing Bridge. How uncanny you should find this! When it mentions Jed’s birth, it was the time we picked up our Jag in Reno (tax-free and $7000.00) and we continued on to Minneapolis to a meeting, then to Kansas City, and home to Hawaii. In fact, we had trouble with the car and were stuck on the road outside of Reno (our return trip). It was Memorial Day with everything shut own, and we were lucky to contact someone to come and tow us into town.
That car was very complicated and we never found anyone in Hawaii to take care of it properly.
Thank you, sweetie, for sharing this with us.
Love,
Gran
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